On the wave: People's Party (P.P.) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo with Madrid Community President Isabel Diaz Ayuso
Two weeks ago I was on rally on a hot night in Madrid. In the shadow of a statue of Don Quixote, about 100 citizens surrounded Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the centre-right Spanish People's Party (PP), as he presented his candidates in the capital's general election. Chief among them was 44-year-old Isabel Diaz Ayuso, President of Madrid and the most convincing figure in the elections due on July 23: a sort of Spanish Margaret Thatcher.
She was wearing jeans and a white coat; men, blazers and chinos. The PP is impeccably bourgeois in dress and manners: there was no chanting, no shouting, no flights of oratory, not even applause, and passers-by hurried past, trying to get home, barely casting a glance. Two policemen rode on elegant horses, made sure that order was observed, and left to do nothing else.
Critics say the continent's conservatives are bringing far-right ideas to power using Trojan horse tactics. The PP is expected to oust the incumbent Socialists at the end of this month but fail to win a majority, forcing Feijoo to make a deal with Vox, a party so politically incorrect it makes GB News sound like Channel 4. Founded in 2013 by dissidents from the PP (which considered the party too wet), she is worried, according to one newspaper editor, by masculinity, red meat, beautiful ladies and opposition to the rainbow flag.
However, this evening could hardly be called the hotbed of revolution. While Ayuso did her best to look interested, Feihoo — a white-haired bureaucrat in his early 60s — reminisced about his days as a Spanish postal manager. “We must pave the way for consensus, dialogue and agreement,” he said, before moving on to an extended football analogy. > NP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo and Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of Madrid, at a rally on 18 June. Photo: ISABEL INFANTES
What did this right-wing «revolution» remind me of most? Keir Starmer rally. The most exciting thing that happened was that the bodyguard pulled me out of the way when I tried to ask Feihoo a question.
As Brexit Britain leans to the left, weighing up the vote for Sir Keir in the next election, the EU appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Center-right governments have recently been elected in Italy, Finland and Greece, and Spain is expected to join them on July 23, supporting platforms that are very different from those of Rishi Sunak. The European right is cutting taxes, talking about national identity, strengthening the family, and—a million miles away from the British position—questioning the wisdom of pure zero. The most interesting party in the Netherlands, led by Caroline van der Plas and called BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), meaning Farmers and Citizens Movement, is run by fractious farmers against EU climate targets.
Farmers and Citizens Movement (BBB) leader Caroline van der Plas
So, is Europe on the cusp of a neo-fascist renaissance? Or is there something more subtle?
Spain certainly challenges stereotypes about the Mediterranean as a region that is in the same currency crisis from a fascist takeover. The country is Catholic but liberal; he legalized same-sex marriage back in 2005. No serious person wants to leave the euro. Franco is a memory few want to revisit — and since the advent of democracy, the government has peacefully alternated between the PP and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which currently sits in power as part of a coalition with the far-left Unidas. Podemos (union of parties).
I visited the PSOE office in Madrid, and the first thing that catches the eye in the photos of its 51-year-old prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, is that he is incredibly handsome. Handsome Pedro, however, also did a good job. Inflation is only 1.9%, well below the UK's 8.6%, which is attributed to some policy measures such as rent caps and contingency taxes. The 13% unemployment rate is also likely to help keep wage inflation in check, but it's still well below the staggering high of 27% in 2013. (The Spanish welfare system is patchy: when people lose money, they cut spending and move in with their parents.)
Minister Pedro Sanchez with Feijoo during a live TV debate. Photo: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency
However, despite his achievements, it is Sanchez, and not the well-known radicalism of the right, that is the main theme of the campaign. Andrea Fernandez, Socialist MP and Equality Secretary of the PSOE, puts the blame on hostile media that ignored political debate and focused on «personal attacks and fake news», even coining a term for Sanchez's form of government — Sanchismo — to give the impression that Spain is dominated by a far-left demagogue.
Cry Me A River. Lucia Mendez, public opinion editor at El Mundo, assured me that Sanchez deserved the shame for being undeniably rude and divisive. He «views politics as a battle, as a matter of resistance, and that didn't work out well for him because he doesn't know how to keep the balance,» she says, a serious disadvantage when your ability to legislate depends on the support of the radical left and regional parties. Spain is ruled by a coalition of chaos, a government that creates its own opposition.
1507 Rise of Right Europe
Consider this tragic example. In 2016, during the Pamplona Bull Run Festival, an 18-year-old girl was gang-raped. The court ruled on the lesser charge of «sexual assault»; the country was shocked. The left-wing coalition responded with the «Only Yes Means Yes» legislation, which established consent as the deciding factor in rape cases — a noble intention with unforeseen consequences. The reform led to a review of the sentences of criminals imprisoned under the old laws, reducing the prison terms of almost 1,000 sex offenders and even freeing some. Sanchez's party pledged to close the loophole; his far-left partners stood their ground. “We saw how the members of the coalition publicly disagreed on how to fix the disaster,” recalls Mendes. «It's a complete mess and this prime minister doesn't seem to care about doing anything about it.»
Indeed, the rise of conservatives across Europe can be interpreted not so much as a decisive turn to the right, but as a reaction to governments on the left that have gone too far, too fast – on environmental issues, transgender rights, open borders, and so on. Here in the UK we associate conservatism with chaos, thanks in large part to Brexit (“There’s only one Boris Johnson,” Mendes laughs), so when a European country chooses a colorful right-wing party, we assume people vote to burn to the ground. house. Perhaps continental Europe sees things differently. France is on fire under the leadership of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist technocrat. From a French point of view, voting for a populist law and order at the next opportunity does not seem risky, but rational.
1507 Rising of the Right europe 2018 v 2023
This does not mean that there is no reactionary dimension. to the new European right, which is taking away what many valued and considered the established liberal consensus.
Georgia Meloni, Italy's prime minister, has lashed out at the «gay lobby» by choosing not to recognize same-sex parental couples on birth certificates and wants to ban the acquisition of children through surrogacy abroad. Feihoo said he would repeal recent transgender legislation and abolish the Ministry of Equality. But when commentators on the left warn of the dangers of the right, they are ignoring the centre-left's inability to deal with globalization, mass migration, racial tensions, Islamism, gender ideology, or trade-offs between good economic management and reduced inequality. . The surrounding left is divided—immigrants against native workers, or environmentalists against farmers—which has led to the perverse, destabilizing policies that Europeans have been forced to live with.
From 2015 to 2019, Alexis Tsipras' far-left party ruled Greece. First, Tsipras vowed to rebel against the EU and oppose spending cuts. Not only did he turn around and introduce austerity, he did it in partnership with a right-wing anti-immigrant group called Independent Greeks (it was under Tsipras that Syrian refugees were deported to Turkey). He managed to alienate both the right and the left, leading to the victory of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his centre-right New Democracy, which recently won re-election with 41 percent of the vote. Under Mitsotakis, growth is rising, unemployment is down, and he wants to cut taxes. Left-wing theater has been replaced by consumer-oriented competence.
However, three nasty nationalist parties have gained representation in the Athens Parliament, lending weight to Andrea Fernandez's warning. “People think of the far right as something that happens in the extreme” – on wings – “but it doesn’t, because it happens; it moves the political center elsewhere.” She points to León-Castile, a region where Vox has partnered with PP to invite women who want abortions to listen to the fetal heartbeat.
Andrea Fernandez, PSOE Secretary for Equality. Photo: Europa Press News
At first, Vox was taken as a joke; today it is the third largest party in the lower house of parliament. Its ability to strike a nerve is evident in the village of Valdemorillo, about 20 miles northwest of Madrid. After Vox politicians won local council elections in May, a planned production of a theatrical version of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando was excluded from the summer season of village cultural events. Vox was accused of being transphobic; the party replied that the decision was due to lack of money.
While enjoying afternoon vermouth and a cigarette at one of the village bars, Miguel Angel Perez, the 53-year-old owner of a moving firm, said he didn't care about Orlando but was very interested in seeing Sanchez behind him. “Vox is right about many things, such as ensuring equal treatment of men and women in the justice system; the presumption of innocence should be the same for both,” he explained, arguing that there are many false complaints of abuse by women that leave “a lifelong stain on the reputation of men… Better government would be with Vox and PP; it's time to kick Sanchez out. And it's time to stop the immigrants who come here to commit crimes.”
After reading this, you may be worried. But what sounds disturbing, Mendez said, is that people are just arguing. Vox are agitators. This is a party that really only consists of rallies and propaganda; full mouth and no pants. The culture war schemes they come up with are only meant to be seen by their electorate who want them to fight the elites.”
For example, the policy of fetal heartbeat that Fernandez spoke of did not lead to anything. An attempt on the left to characterize Vox as a throwback to the 1930s has failed because there is a common assumption that either Feihoo will get enough seats to govern without them or, if he must form a coalition, Vox is so lacking in a specific agenda or political expertise , with which he can easily shut them up. The VP of Vox for the Valencia region is a retired bullfighter. This is politics as bloody entertainment.
So why is this particular circus in the position of a kingmaker? We can thank the constitutional crisis of 2017-18. Catalonia threatened to secede from Spain, which led to local protests, arrests and a serious threat of a split in the country. This, in turn, revived Spanish nationalism unseen for decades; although Mendez argued that this was not a return to Franco, but rather pride in what Spain had achieved since the death of the general — its economy, its culture and democratic stability, which seemed to be under attack.
What many Spanish conservatives want is a prouder and stronger central state; Vox will completely abolish the regional governments. This is in contrast to the British Tories, who leaned towards devolution and localism as a way to appease regional voters. And while our conservatives spend money to keep working-class voters happy, PP and Vox insist that the state, while stronger, must also be smaller. The Vox base is middle class. While Meloni is flirting with corporatism and Marine Le Pen's National Front in France is almost socialist, the Spanish far right is pushing for deregulation and tax cuts.
At his rally, Feijoo sounded a similar note, praising financial management. NP-controlled Madrid: The city “is an example of what we do when we cut taxes. The economy is growing.”
Feijo said he would repeal recent transgender legislation and abolish the Ministry of Equality. Photo: Anadolu agency
Ayuso smiled at that. Her star took time to rise. A career politician, one of her first jobs was managing an official's dog's Twitter account. Taking over the leadership of the PP from Madrid, she performed poorly in the 2019 election round, but Covid hit the following year and she took a bold stance on lockdown. Madrid was no stranger to hiding during the pandemic — it's a vibrant, hot city where people eat, drink and socialize on the streets. Therefore, Ayuso decided to keep shops and restaurants open, challenging Sanchez and the medical facility. It was a wildly popular move. Her picture was displayed in bars and printed on T-shirts, and in May 2021, her party won local councils with nearly 45% of the vote.
Ayuso shared with The Daily Telegraph her vision of life under the PP administration: “The politics of defending freedom will return to Spain; there will be a national government that does not lie to the citizens and does not make deals with political parties that have publicly declared themselves enemies of Spain.” The party will emphasize «economic growth, job creation and prosperity, low taxes» — as low taxes mean growth, which means better funding for public services. At the same time, the government should be “strict”, and not “squander” wealth. It should support businesses and the self-employed, «not attack them.»
'The freedom protection policy will return to Spain' Ayuso told the Telegraph. Photo: Europa Press News
It's hard to imagine a British Conservative leader speaking like that. Brexit forced the Tories to rethink their mission and identity — and, contrary to the worst fears of those left behind, their existential panic somehow reoriented them to the left. The political and economic crisis appears to have had the opposite effect in Europe. This has prompted conservatives to return to the core of their philosophy, faith, and national culture, although it remains to be seen how simply a rhetorical commitment is. Meloni, derided as the Italian Trump, just announced the issuance of 425,000 work permits for non-EU citizens to fill gaps in the labor market.
Madrid Ayuso is a curious place. He loves conservatives, but there are rainbow flags in the windows next to the pork carcasses, and a store advertising hemp-flavored ice cream in front of the regional president. The election battle is between definitions of freedom. For the left, it is freedom from poverty; for Vox, freedom to speak one's mind; for Ayuso, freedom from big government.
If Feihoo wins, it will be because his emphasis on calm and easy competence promises freedom from politics itself.
Additional messages by James Badcock
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